Yep, local favorite Soul Asylum (aka Dave Pirner) is headlining First Avenue on their holiday show. We’ve seen Pirner before, and he’s always fun and animated. Expect to hear the hits, “Runaway Train” and “Somebody to Shove.”

Local bands The 4onthefloor (Gabe Douglas and friends), Loki’s Folly (underage sisters according to Pirner), and DJ Set from 7 Inches Of Lori B (Lori Barbero from Babes in Toyland) to open.

Details from Soul Asylum:

We're back at First Avenue & 7th St Entry on Friday, December 28 w/ 4 On The Floor and Loki's Folly (presented by The Current) Tickets available here: t.co/gYCAYtGKNF !!!

If Eris’ name sounds familiar, that’s because she used to be in
Grrrl Prty. Since Grrrl Prty broke up at Rock the Garden 2016, she’s been busy touring and working on her debut solo record with producer Lazerbeak. So maybe expect Lazerbeak and her co-hort DJ Shannon Blowtorch to show up at this Christmas party.

The annual Run Westy Run (Kraig Johnson and his brothers Kirk and Kyle) Christmas show is once again here. We started noticing that the group came back to the music industry around December 2015.
Anyway, this time, they’re playing at the Turf Club with Sapphire (Ava Levy and Lily Govrik) to open.

For the Christmas show (Tue 12/25/2018), that show will take place at the
7th St Entry.

Join Northfield, MN’s The Big Wu (Chris Castino,
Terry VanDeWalker, Mark Joseph, Al Oikari, and Padre Pienbique) at their album release for We Are Young We Are Old show will be at the Fine Line Music Café on December 29th.

In advance of a transcontinental North American tour co-headlining with Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees will play at the Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina. They take the late slot at the Contemporary Art Museum on
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J Balvin will be stopping by the Armory on Wednesday, October 10th. Opening will be Michael Brun and Nigerian native Mr Eazi. Mr Eazi gained international success with hits such as “Skintight” and, recently, “Property.”

Hopefully this is the last and final name for San Francisco’s Oh Sees.
The band previously called themselves Thee Oh Sees, and before that The Oh Sees, The Ohsees, OCS (Orange County Sound), and Orinoka Crash Suite.

Singer-songwriter/producer Dan Wilson proves you can go home again.
As a Tax Day treat for Minneapolis residents, local record store The Electric Fetus hosted Wilson for a free in-store performance on this...

Dan Wilson’s Re-Covered is out now. The unique album finds the Grammy-winning songwriter reinterpreting songs from his past, including a re-interpretation of his Semisonic band’s hit song ‘Closing Time’.

If you follow Wilson’s career, after Semisonic, he started writing hit songs for other artists, such as songs for Taylor Swift (‘Treacherous’) and Adele (‘Someone Like You’)… so, for the first time, we get to hear how Wilson would approach his own songs.

In addition to the album, there is also a deluxe edition CD with hardcover book, which contains drawings, essays, lyrics, and songwriting observations about all those songs he’s written.

The tour kicks off next Friday, September 22nd, at the Fitzgerald Theater in St Paul.

Portland's Joseph are three sisters, Natalie, Allison, and Meegan. They harmonize as only very close family members can achieve. Songs on their set included tracks from Native Dreamer Kin, which came out early in March 2014.
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All sisters band Joseph (named after their grandfather) is returning to Minneapolis at First Avenue’s mainroom this Saturday. Their new seven-track EP, Stay Awake is available on ATO Records. The collection features some demos, singles, and covers of Tears For Fears’ ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ and the Rolling Stones’ ‘Moonlight Mile’.

We previously caught the sisters (Natalie, Allison, and Meegan) in 2014 and noted that they have great harmonizing vocals.

Bailen, also a sibling band (twins David and Daniel and their sister Julia) will open the show.

Wild Cub is playing the Triple Rock Social Club on Saturday, September 23rd, in support of their sophomore album Closer (Mom+Pop).

The last time the band was in town, they opened up for Bleachers in 2014… this time with Closer the band is headlining.

Show up early to check out
Parade Of Lights. We caught the electro-rock quartet in 2015 and wrote, “Singer Ryan Daly’s hair has even turned golden since we last saw them, with keys/synth player Michelle Ashley bringing plenty of enthusiasm while bass player Randy Schulte and drummer Anthony Improgo ably held up the back end. For whatever reason, this band that plays bright, sunny electro, was lit as dimly as London’s Underground during the blitz, making for a strange dichotomy that seemed counter to their music, though the songs themselves, remain irresistible.”

Since I love all-things Riot Grrrls, naturally I wanted to check out Babes in Toyland live. A little trivia, but the legendary Minneapolis band actually fired bassist Courtney Love in 1987. She, of course
…

Other shows in the area:

09/22/2017
We saw Mandolin Orange’s very first Minneapolis show in 2012. This time, the band is headlining the
Fine Line Music Café this Friday, September 22nd. Rachel Baiman to open for this show, but starting September 27
Bluegass musician Dori Freeman will be joining the band on tour.
8pm, $16.

09/22/2017
Penny and Sparrow (aka Andy Baxter and Kyle Jahnke) is currently on tour in support of their new album Wendigo. The record just came out September 1st.
The duo will be stopping by Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant on Friday, September 22nd.
Lowland Hum to open.
7pm, $20.

09/22/2017
The Yawpers has a new album Boy in a Well on Bloodshot Records. They’ll be previewing some of those songs on this upcoming show at the 7th Street Entry on Friday.
The Person & The People will open.
8pm, $12.

Local musician Monica LaPlante opened up the show, fifteen minutes fashionably late. The band was in the Halloween spirit, dressing up as a reverse Robert Palmer and his voluptuous band.
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Local radio station 89.3 The Current just celebrated their 12th anniversary last week (January 27th and 28th). Although the station plays popular alternative modern music, they also proudly support the local music scene.

Friday’s show featured Jeremy Messersmith, Portland’s Joseph (the all sister act named after their grandfather), Strand of Oaks (aka Tim Showalter), Black Market Brass, and Jay Smart.

For the Saturday sold out show, we’re treated with local Monica LaPlante, starting right on time at 7:30pm (unlike the last time we saw them).

LaPlante is a real favorite at the Current, who had the band in for some local sessions and interview when they were promoting their new album Noir (Hollander Records). Of course, LaPlante expressed that the entire band was “thrilled to be here.”

Their set was similar to their October 2016 show, including the first two songs ‘Fragile’ and ‘Can’t Stop’, but ending the show with ‘Hope You're Alone’.

They also played a brand new song in the middle of their set (although they confessed that they played that new song a few nights ago at the Triple Rock Social Club show with Royal Brat).

In between bands, DJ Shannon Blowtorch (Grrrl Prty) handled the playlist. Her music choices were mostly from the 90s, including some fan-favorite Prince medleys.

Next up was The Sam Roberts Band.
The Canadian band is actually on tour with Hollerado (who was playing next door at the smaller 7th Street Entry), but the Current requested the Sam Roberts Band to play the main room.

The band started their set with ‘FIEND’, a song they often save for the encore, but considering that they love playing the song, and with a shorter opening set, they decided to put that song up front first.

Before they played ‘Shapeshifters’ from Lo-Fantasy, the band said they were all tuned into The Current on their long drive from Canada.

Jade and Mary Lucia gave Zuluzuluu a nice intro. Jade said that the first time she heard them, she had to book them at any given opportunity. With that, Zuluzuluu played a few track from their The Cover Up album, including ‘On Our Way’.

We previously saw the band with Femi Kuti on July 2016 and wrote that it’s a projected fronted by Greg Grease.

Brian Oake and Jill Riley introduced their new favorites The Lemon Twigs, who are currently touring with Nashville’s Savoy Motel (playing next door with Hollerado). We’ve seen the band before, and noted that they drew in a huge crowd, thanks to the buzz that the Current generated for this young band.

Shortly after playing their first song, ‘I Wanna Prove to You’, they realized that they broke their bass drum pedal (which, surprisingly was not the first time this happened to the band). The First Avenue staff was quick to bring them another pedal, so the whole ordeal was actually pretty painless as they transitioned to ‘Haroomata’ and ‘These Words’.

Like the last time we saw them in October 2016, they had a harmonizing moment in their set before the two brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario switched instruments and pick up their pace.

Before Haley Bonar closed out the night, everybody currently working at the Current were on stage, standing behind Mark Wheat, who gave us a nice speech about the Current and how important the radio station is to everyone.

Wheat mentioned that Bonar started in South Dakota, transplanted to Duluth, and eventually settled to St Paul... but there was a dark moment as he said she moved to Portland. Anyway, what’s important is that she’s back in Minnesota, and her new album Impossible Dream is one of our favorite from 2016.

Bonar started her set with the fitting song, ‘Hometown’, and went through almost everything off Impossible Dream (‘Your Mom Is Right’, ‘Stupid Face’, ‘I Can Change’, ‘Skynz’, ‘Better Than Me’, ‘Kismet Kill’). She didn’t play my favorite song ‘Queen of Everything’, but instead offered another queen song entitled ‘Called You Queen’ from the new album.

Like Mark Wheat said, The Current is important to Minnesota, and we love what they do for local musicians.

Monica LaPlante

Sam Roberts Band

Zuluzuluu

The Lemon Twigs

Haley Bonar

Haley Bonar at First Ave, Minneapolis (28 Jan 2017)

The Current's 12th Birthday Party at First Ave, Minneapolis (28 Jan 2017)

Lidell's highly-anticipated self-titled album just came out today (February 19th) on Warp Records. The lead single is called "You Naked", and you can watch the video on YouTube. ..…

An electronica-soul dance party breaking out in the middle of a lifestyle furnishings store?!—

That’s exactly what happened as Cambridgeshire, UK (now Nashvillian) soul singer and electronic musician Jamie Lidell came to town for the inaugural local installment of CB2 After Hours, an evening series of special events at Crate and Barrel offshoot store, CB2.

In addition to the live performance, invite-confirming guests also enjoyed complimentary appetizers, beverages, photo booth pictures, and commemorative tote bags.

To get things started, area DJ Shannon Blowtorch kept things moving with her signature blend of beats and songs, both old and new, as the less than one hundred people in attendance enjoyed the evening and milled about the closed to the public store.

Lidell and talented guitarist Marcus Machado then took to the stage for their hour-long set, in support of latest album, Building a Beginning (on Jajulin/Kobalt Records), which just came out last month and marks his seventh studio release.

He re-acquainted himself with the audience by starting with his breakout song, 2005’s ‘Multiply’ which first showcased his DIY band sound and English soulful vocals.

‘Walk Right Back’ from the new album was next, an example of the record’s less electronic and more essential soul sound, with drummer Daryl Jones’ beats captured on laptop to be reproduced live. This was the first time Lidell and Machado had played this stripped down, and Lidell wanted the crowd even closer, even though the setting was plenty intimate.

‘Another Day’ has taken on additional meaning, with the addition of Lidell’s one year-old son, and ‘A Little Bit More’ is still best known on these shores as soundtrack for a Target commercial. Lidell pointed to the pertinence of songs like his new ‘Me and You’, in light of all the recent political events and unrest, saying “I can’t even vote here”, but asking people to make a difference in their own way.

‘Nothing’s Gonna Change’ evoked ‘70’s-era Marvin Gaye with its deep beats and looped soul harmonies, and Lidell would eventually break any metaphorical barriers between he and the crowd, by jumping down and singing with a few people in the front.

Although unplanned, applause and crowd shouts added an impromptu encore of ‘Little Bit of Feel Good’ showcasing Lidell’s abilities of layering tracks made with his voice into a microphone and performing the percussion and melody as a sequenced, beatboxing one-man band, as Machado strummed along rhythmically.

CB2 continues its establishment of cool with a couple other interesting events in other markets and based on its inaugural event locally in Minneapolis, we hope the series continues in this metro, as well.

Minneapolis hip-hop collective Doomtree is on the road to SXSW 2015! The tour is also to promote his upcoming full-lenth album All Hands, due January 27, 2015 on their own Doomtree Records. ....

Half a band, half a set, and drenching rain… but it didn’t matter- Doomtree was in the building.

The event was part of the celebration of the formal announcement so many local sports fans had waited for as the Minnesota United FC soccer team, was moving from the North American Soccer League (NASL) to the much larger Major League Soccer.

A $200+ million-dollar soccer-specific stadium that seats 21,500 in St Paul is due to break ground to be ready in 2018, with the team playing at TCF Bank Stadium until their building is ready. After speeches by team owner Bill McGuire, Mayor Chris Coleman, and others, the music was set to begin.

DJ Shannon Blowtorch spun the tunes in-between, playfully crafting a mash-up of Milli Vanelli’s ‘Blame it on the Rain’ and Eurythmics’ ‘Here Comes the Rain Again’ as the rain continued to come down and Doomtree members Sims, Cecil Otter, Mike Mictlan, and Lazerbeak took to the stage.

The collective was missing a few members due to other commitments, but the faithful were still there to support as the quartet broke into opener ‘No Way’ and beginning lyric, “We got cracks in our armor, got cracks in the ceiling” as the rain worsened, saying “It’s always raining when we’re playing outside”.

“I’m gonna do one song in the rain” Sims declared after getting security to remove all the stage barriers, jumping into the middle of the soaked crowd for the rapid-fire lyrical spitting of his ‘Uh Huh’. Cecil Otter took the spotlight next with ‘Grime’ and its dark but memorable lyric, “We’re lying in a minefield of dreams. We count those sheep as they scream”.

Sims returned with ‘Slow Burn’ as he and Mike Mictlan stalked the stage as the rain continued and had now somewhat dangerously collected on the roof of the stage, causing the tented ceiling in two areas, to severely buckle.

Stage crew noticed this and frantically used the bottom end of music stands and anything else they could find, to literally try and raise the roof to push the water off, all as the band continued. “Have you ever seen a breach birth before? – it’s about to happen”, they said, looking at the swelling ceiling.

After a searing ‘Prizefight’, the set ended and their promise of “we’ll see you again- hopefully” came true sooner than later, as the scheduled second set was cancelled (as was Astronautalis’ performance) but the collective quickly returned to the stage for a single-song encore of ‘Bangarang’, as people shook off the drenching rain by head bobbing or moving and dancing to the song.

Though rain in some superstitions is considered a sign of good luck to come- a symbol of new starts, unity and renewal, which fans hope it translates to a successful soccer team and season; luck wasn’t on the side of music fans on this day, just hoping for a longer and additional set from Doomtree.

This is a true story, but after I saw Peaches in September 2000, I had to see her again. Between the period of 2000 and 2002, we must have seen her at least four times! Every time she would appear, she had gained a bigger audience (and we started to recognize some of the same people at these shows!)

Peaches is currently tour in support of her latest album Rub (I U She Music).

British singer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Jack Garratt is currently on tour with Mumford and Sons, but on his off days with the massive band, he's booked a few smaller side gigs - including one at 7th …

We just previously caught New York's MS MR at Go Fest 2015 in August... and with only two months, the band is back. This upcoming show is also sponsored by Go 96.3... so they have a special deal, if you put in "GO" on the code line, your ticket price is only $9.63 (additional details on go963mn.com).

Opening will be Jack Garratt, who we just saw also in August 2015.
With only eight written songs, Garratt had to carry the headlining burden, so he was incredibly nervous (and grateful!) for seeing so many strangers coming to see him play live. Hopefully, as an opener, the weight of a full-length show will be lifted.